Mountain Dreamers
Brig, Soren and Reidar- there is bravery in France besides you three boys. Montpelier has projected the Charlie Hebdo cartoons after Sam Paty was be-headed in the Paris school by an Islamist Terrorist. Remember when we posted Charlie Hebdo cartoons in our kitchen in Chamonix! We were brave then, and we are brave now. Love Papa.
You mother started a mob against our family. I am responding, just as Paris Dennard describes. This this blog is outreach and forming allies with other free-speech, non-mafia type people. Without rational-thinking people, there is only violence.
transcript :
Niel Golightly had a long and distinguished career as an executive at Boeing.
Until he didn’t.
Gary Garrels had a long and distinguished career as a curator of painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Until he didn’t.
James Bennett had a long and distinguished career as an editor at the New York Times.
Until he didn’t.
All three were cancelled, their careers, their life’s work ended in a virtual instant.
Golightly wrote an article thirty years ago, objecting to women taking part in military combat. It was published in Proceedings, the magazine of the U.S. Naval Institute which is about as far from the popular press as you can get. Somehow it came to the attention of an employee at Boeing who found it sexist. The social media mob got riled up. Golightly apologized, of course. His views had changed in the intervening decades. But it didn’t matter. He was forced to resign.
Garrels concluded a presentation about purchasing art from more racially diverse artists by saying that he would still continue to buy art from white artists. This outraged the staff at the museum who found his remarks smacking of white supremacy. Garrels apologized, of course. He should have been more sensitive to his colleagues’ feelings, he said. But it didn’t matter. He was forced to resign.
Bennett published an opinion piece by Republican Senator Tom Cotton, arguing that if the Black Lives Matter inspired riots continued to overwhelm local police, the federal government should send in the National Guard to restore order.
New York Times staff claimed that Cotton’s words were threatening. They personally felt endangered by them. They demanded Bennett’s head. Bennett apologized, of course. He just thought the Times readers should be exposed to a different point of view. But it didn’t matter. He was forced to resign.
Former Times columnist Bari Weiss perfectly described the situation in her resignation letter shortly after Bennet’s banishment.
“Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor.”
This is the “cancel culture” that now pervades America. Yet, people on the left, the very people responsible for it, claim it doesn’t exist. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mocks those who fear its growing influence: “Odds are you’re not actually cancelled,” she tweeted. “You’re just being challenged, held accountable, or unliked.”
The representative’s claim that this is merely “accountability culture” is common on the Left.
Don’t believe it.
“Accountability” means “a duty to explain.” Accountability involves confronting a person with their actions in a way that allows them to explain themselves or ask for forgiveness—and otherwise continue the dialogue.
The purpose of cancellation is very different. It seeks to bring all conversation to an end—to strike fear in the public so that no one else dares to speak up.
That is cancellation—and it extends far beyond criticism. Cancellation involves social media mobs engaged in public shaming and the creation of blacklists. It seeks the destruction of the career and reputation of anyone who differs with a leftist position.
“The bullies,” says social critic Douglas Murray, “want to stop the rest of us talking or thinking.”
Virtually no one is immune. Not Kevin Hart, not JK Rowling, not Woodrow Wilson, not Drew Brees.
Not the famous or the unknown; not the living or the dead.
So many have been burned at the social media stake, one has to wonder if the mob is going to run out of victims.
But this fire will not burn itself out. We have to stop it.
How?
First, if you ever find yourself in the cancel culture crosshairs, don’t apologize to the mob. Apologize when you’ve done something wrong, not when you’ve exercised a Constitutional right. And furthermore, your apology won’t save you. It merely hands the bullies another victory. Stand firm. The storm will pass. The mob always moves on.
Second, find allies among reasonable people — not necessarily people who vote the way you do or agree with you on every issue — just people who still believe in free speech and are committed to open dialogue.
Third, the rest of us must only support institutions and businesses that value free expression. Money talks (which is why cancel culture is such a potent weapon: people and even big businesses are terrified of losing their incomes).
Finally, defend targets of the mob, wherever they fall on the political spectrum. This is a free speech issue. It should unite liberals and conservatives against the left.
The very soul of our republic depends on an open exchange of ideas. We must take on and defeat a cancel culture that would hold a free people hostage in their own society.
I’m Paris Dennard for Prager University.
Parental Alienation is mind rape.
Your mother is guilty of Mind-Rape. Erin Pizzey is a hero to woman and pioneered shelters for victims of domestic abuse.
This book is 25 years old, but is so full of wisdom. I am re-reading and thinking of you boys. Find your freedom, then you will attain happiness. DO NOT BE A VICTIM. Love papa.
The book is on your kindle.
brig, soren and reidar. The marxist governments killed more than 100 people in 20th century. Much more than any soliders in the world wars. And today, the governments kill more people than all the crime networks out there. War, crime and pestilence are nothing compared to the slaughter caused by governments. Beware of who is willing to harm you, it is not what they tell you. That is why I am telling you, preparing you. Love Papa.
A Russian journalist has died after setting herself on fire outside police headquarters in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, Russian media reported Friday.
Irina Slavina, the editor-in-chief of the KozaPress news outlet died at the scene, the Baza and 112 Telegram channels reported.
“I ask you to blame the Russian Federation for my death,” Slavina wrote on her Facebook page about an hour before her death.
The previous day, she said local security forces raided her home in search of evidence of her involvement with the opposition.
“They were looking for brochures, leaflets, invoices of [pro-democracy movement] Open Russia, possibly an icon with the face of [exiled oligarch] Mikhail Khodorkovsky,” she wrote following the early-Thursday raid.
“I don’t have any of this,” she wrote in her Facebook post. “But they took away what they found — all the flash drives, my laptop, my daughter’s laptop, the computer, phones — not just mine, but also my husband’s — a bunch of my notebooks that I scribbled on during press conferences. I’m left without the means of production.”
Regional investigators said they have launched a pre-investigation check into the death but have not confirmed Slavina’s identity.
Cliff Mass is from seattle, is climatologist like me and has a very popular blog. Today the mob is out for him too.
Beware of the mob.
Our democracy is threatened.
It is threatened by rioters using violence as a political tool, by individuals intimidating politicians through aggressive home visits, by Presidential debates where name calling and incivility rule, by the loss of a sense of physical safety that is a necessity for a civil society, by destructive hyper-partisanship, and by the suppression of freedom of speech and diversity of viewpoints.
There are few better examples of the suppression of freedom of speech and viewpoint diversity than the recent partisan actions by the management of KNKX, and this blog will review this issue. I will discuss the termination of my weekly weather segment because of KNKX management’s unhappiness with my personal political free speech in social media. And I will demonstrate the extreme hypocrisy of their actions, with their leadership’s use of nearly identical language for their own political advocacy.
Freedom of speech and respect for viewpoint diversity is the foundation of our democracy.
Only in a free society where differing ideas can be offered and compete, can citizens consider all sides of important issues and make wise decisions.
If advocates of one side of an issue can silence the speech of others, the inevitable result will be poor decision making and the undermining of our democracy.
The founders of our nation and subsequent political leaders recognized the central role of free, unfettered speech for the maintenance of our democratic system:
“If men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter…. reason is of no use to us; the freedom of speech may be taken away, and dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter.”— George Washington
“If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought — not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.”— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court justice
The management of public radio station KNKX made a decision in August that directly conflicts with the above principles.
Brief Summary of the Situation On August 5th, I posted a blog (A City in Fear Can Be Restored) that talked about the boarded up City of Seattle and the irresponsibility of our city’s leaders; a blog that was also highly critical of violent rioters who were, and still are, destroying property, hurting people and their livelihoods, and intimidating individual political leaders. I talked about the damage being “reminiscent” of 1930s Germany (broken glass and more) and that the violent rioters were acting in several ways like the “brownshirts” of the last century.
The day following my blog post, KNKX leadership received a number of messages from partisan individuals who called for my dismissal, and without discussing the situation with me, KNKX management immediately canceled my weather segment. Joey Cohn and Matt Martinez (station manager and program director) called me after the decision was made….no debate allowed, no conversation…my segment was cancelled.
There are few more obvious examples of cancel culture.
In a note on their website they called my blog “misleading” and that it “did not reflect what we stand for.” I emailed both Joey Cohn and Matt Martinez, asking what I “got wrong”. I asked them what was misleading. They refused to answer. They refused to interact in any way.
Whether my blog was accurate was beside the point. I was expressing my political viewpoint in social media completely outside of my contributions to the station. And a public radio station, of all places, should not be in the business of suppressing free speech and limiting ideas. Imagine if your employer fired one of your coworkers for such a reason, and the chilling effects it would have on YOUR freedom of speech. You would quickly become fearful of expressing your viewpoint on anything controversial.
And after reading a half-dozen books on 1930s Germany, I believe the analogy I made is both compelling and reasonable, and I am ready to defend my comparisons. Both the rioters in Seattle (and Portland) and the 1930s brownshirts were organized thugs with a violent anti-capitalist political agendas. The revelations and continued violence of the past two months have provided substantial corroboration of my analysis, documenting the organized nature of the violence and that the goals of the rioters are far different than the peaceful protestors concerned about protecting black lives. In fact, the rioters detract and obscure the valuable messages of peaceful protestors.
Not only did KNKX’s actions contradict the essential principles of our democracy, but they also contradict Seattle civil law (Seattle Municipal Code Ch. 14.04) and the published principles of National Public Radio (NPR), something highlighted in the NPR Ethics Handbook:
“Our journalism includes diverse voices that reflect our society and divergent views that contribute to informed debate…We aggressively challenge our own perspectives and pursue a diverse range of others”
There are few more important roles of a public radio station than to foster diversity of viewpoint, and KNKX management acted to reduce diversity, not increase it. Destroying freedom of speech, not enhancing it.
For more details about the situation, please see a previous blog on the matter.
While KNKX management removed my segment because they disagreed with my viewpoint, KNKX leadership used social media with the same analogies, but in support of a different political narrative. A stunning example of hypocrisy and partisanship.Hypocrisy
Although it was problematic to KNKX management that I noted the similarity of recent violent rioters with 1930’s brownshirts, they are content for station leadership and on-air contributors to compare President Trump and his administration to Nazis and fascists. In fact, there was a veritable Fuhrer-fest going on in the social media of KNKX leaders.
Consider leading members of the KNKX advisory board. Joan Tornow, a longtime member, climate activist, and one of the key advocates (for several years) of getting me ejected from the station because of my science-based communication on climate change, posted many Trump-Nazi tweets such as:
Ms. Tornow has posted more tweets with references to “brownshirts” in the Trump administration.
Another KNKX advisory board member and the moderator of the KNKX community facebook page, John Woltjer, constantly railed about Trump and that Trump voters were fascists (see below), and even called for the death of Republican Party.
In his leadership role as director of the KNKX community forum Facebook page, John Woltjer decided to prevent any additional comments about my situation or support for my retention on KNKX. Absolutely contradictory to free speech (see below).
Or consider KNKX Board Member Scott Alhsmith, who has compared Trump and conservatives with Nazis. A few examples
Goebbels was Hitler’s propaganda minister.
And the wonderful Art Thiel, KNKX sports commentator and in exactly the same position as I was as an outside contributor, tweeted about Trump being a Hitler-like goose-stepping character.
I could show you many more examples of KNKX leaders using Nazi references, but you get the message. KNKX management believes it is ok to use Nazi, brownshirt, and fascist analogies if one is attacking Trump and Republicans, but a terrible offense and cause for expulsion if one uses these same analogies for violent rioters who are destroying the fabric of civil society with wanton property damage, malicious personal violence, and intimidating political leaders with different viewpoints.
This not only reveals a disturbing political bias but profound hypocrisy in KNKX management.
Partisanship has entered the KNKX “leadership circle,” with tolerance for the viewpoints of only one side of the political divide. KNKX management believes that those with differing viewpoints have no place at the station.
KNKX management might consider the situation in the late 1940s and early 1950s when media fired commentators with “communist sympathies” in their outside writings and speech.
Freedom of speech and honoring of diversity of viewpoint protects individuals of ALL sides of the political spectrum, and KNKX’s actions were deeply destructive to that protection.
Next Steps
KNKX leadership, in giving in to the cancel-culture mob, has undermined basic democratic principles that serve as the foundation for our society. They did not show the tolerance for intellectual diversity that should be in the DNA of any public radio station.
KNKX was saved for one reason: to preserve diversity of viewpoint in our region. KNKX leadership, acting as they did, rejected the station’s reason for existence. Its birthright. And they showed disregard for KNKX listenership that lost a valued program.
I have asked KNKX leaders to reconsider their decision. Unfortunately, they have not been willing to engage.
It is now up to all of you.
If you believe KNKX management made a terrible mistake, one inconsistent with fostering freedom of speech/diversity of viewpoint, and contradictory to the essential role of a PUBLIC radio station, there are a few things you can do.
If you are a financial supporter of KNKX, you can ask them to reverse their decision, and in the meantime put your contributions on pause.
You can write their leaders (see below) requesting that they pay more attention to the core values of our democracy, such as freedom of speech and protection of diversity of ideas.
Or you can complain to the national leaders of National Public Radio (see contacts below).
I do ask that in your interactions with KNKX leadership, you do so in a civil, measured way. An intolerant mob stampeded KNKX to make a terrible mistake; hopefully, coherent reasoned arguments will persuade them to reverse their decision and to reclaim the ethical foundations of the station.
And if you’ve missed my weekly segment, I’m now doing an even better weekly forecast podcast every Friday. You can find it on my blog and all major streaming services.
Contacts
Joey Cohen: KNKX General Manager: [email protected] Martinez: Program Director: [email protected] Grace: Chair, KNKX Board: [email protected]
If you’d like to express your feedback via phone, I’ve included their contact number below:877-677-5659
Very cool. One of the oldest discoveries of a human grave- 30,000 years ago! Incredible. that was before the Ice Ages. I wonder what language they had? or tools, fire and wheel?
And more than 1000 ebony beads… how did these get to Moscow? fun puzzles.
Simply questioning “Coronavirus” origins can get you killed. Ren is one of many who “disappeared” just by asking some questions. He has re-emerged after months of internment by chinese authorities. He is placed in prison for 18 years- or the rest of his life.
Be careful boys. When you embarrass someone- (ie. your mother and all her false allegations…recall she has had to pay court costs for her allegations of violence- the crampons etc.) Then those embarassed people will kill, imprison and perform the most heinous acts to not admit their egregious lies and behavior.
There are many innocent people in jail, just because a malevolent person does not want their crimes exposed. This is a worse crime than standard crimes of theft or man slaughter. This is human torture.
Another article,
Indi Samarajiva2 days ago·5 min read
Ilived through the end of a civil war — I moved back to Sri Lanka in my twenties, just as the ceasefire fell apart. Do you know what it was like for me? Quite normal. I went to work, I went out, I dated. This is what Americans don’t understand. They’re waiting to get personally punched in the face while ash falls from the sky. That’s not how it happens.
This is how it happens. Precisely what you’re feeling now. The numbing litany of bad news. The ever rising outrages. People suffering, dying, and protesting all around you, while you think about dinner. If you’re trying to carry on while people around you die, your society is not collapsing. It’s already fallen down.
I was looking through some old photos for this article and the mix is shocking to me now. Almost offensive. There’s a burnt body in front of my office. Then I’m playing Scrabble with friends. There’s bomb smoke rising in front of the mall. Then I’m at a concert. There’s a long line for gas. Then I’m at a nightclub. This is all within two weeks.
Today I’m like, “Did we live like this?” But we did. I mean, I did. Was I a rich Colombo fuckboi while poorer people died, especially minorities? Well, yes. I wrote about it, but who cares.
The real question is, who are you? I mean, you’re reading this. You have the leisure to ponder American collapse like it’s even a question. The people really experiencing it already know.
As someone who’s already experienced societal breakdown, here’s the truth: America has already collapsed. What you’re feeling is exactly how it feels. It’s Saturday and you’re thinking about food while the world is on fire. This is normal. This is life during collapse.
Collapse does not mean you’re personally dying right now. It means y’all are dying right now. Death is sometimes close, sometimes far away, but always there. I used to judge those herds of gazelle when the lion eats one of them alive and everyone keeps going — but no, humans are just the same. That’s the real meaning of herd immunity. We’re fundamentally immune to giving a shit.
It honestly becomes mundane (for the privileged). As Colombo kids we used to go out, worry about money, fall in love — life went on. We’d pop the trunk for a bomb check. Turn off our lights for the air raids. I’m not saying that we were untouched. My friend’s dad was killed, suddenly, by a landmine. RIP Uncle Nihal. I know people who were beaten, arrested, and went into exile. But that’s not what my photostream looks like. It was mostly food and parties and normal stuff for a dumb twentysomething.
Collapse is just a series of ordinary days in between extraordinary bullshit, most of it happening to someone else. That’s all it is.
If you’re waiting for a moment where you’re like “this is it,” I’m telling you, it never comes. Nobody comes on TV and says “things are officially bad.” There’s no launch party for decay. It’s just a pileup of outrages and atrocities in between friendships and weddings and perhaps an unusual amount of alcohol.
Perhaps you’re waiting for some moment when the adrenaline kicks in and you’re fighting the virus or fascism all the time, but it’s not like that. Life is not a movie, and if it were, you’re certainly not the star. You’re just an extra. If something good or bad happens to you it’ll be random and no one will care. If you’re unlucky you’re a statistic. If you’re lucky, no one notices you at all.
Collapse is just a series of ordinary days in between extraordinary bullshit, most of it happening to someone else. That’s all it is.
One day, I was at work when someone left a bomb at the NOLIMIT clothing store. It exploded, killing 17 people. When these types of traumatic events take place, no two people experience the same thing. For me, it was seeing the phone lines getting clogged for an hour. For my wife, it was feeling the explosion a half-kilometer from her house. But for the families of the 17 victims, this was the end. And their grief goes on.
As you can see, this is not a uniform experience of chaos. For some people it destroys their bodies, others their hearts, but for most people it’s just a low-level hum at the back of their minds.
Today I assume you went to work. Bad news was everywhere, clogging up your social media, your conversations. Maybe it struck close to you. I’m sorry. Somewhere in your country, a thousand people died. I’m sorry for each of them. A thousand families are grieving tonight. A thousand more join them every day. The pain doesn’t go away, it just becomes a furniture of bones, in a thousand homes.
But that’s exactly how collapse feels. This is how I felt. This is how millions of people have felt, including many immigrants in your midst. We’re trying to tell you as loud as we can. You can get out of it, but you have to understand where you are to even turn around. This, I fear, is one of many things Americans do not understand. You tell yourself American collapse is impossible. Meanwhile, look around.
In the last three months America has lost more people than Sri Lanka lost in 30 years of civil war. If this isn’t collapse, then the word has no meaning. You probably still think of Sri Lanka as a shithole, though the war ended over a decade ago and we’re (relatively) fine. Then what does that make you?
America has fallen. You need to look up, at the people you’re used to looking down on. We’re trying to tell you something. I have lived through collapse and you’re already there. Until you understand this, you only have further to fall.
Brig, Soren and Reidar. I miss watching the Simpson’s with you. There is so much wisdom in this short clip. Hahaha. What do people do when a crisis comes??? Love Papa.